Occupational safety climate in a psychosocial care unit: The perception of nursing workers

Abstract

Background: The safety climate is a measurable element of safety culture. Based on professionals’ perceptions, it is possible to know the safety context of an organization. Objective: Assess the safety climate and its relationship to accidents/occupational diseases in a psychosocial care unit. Methodology: Quantitative, inferential study with nursing workers in a psychosocial care unit. A semi-structured questionnaire and the ClimaSeg-H-Escala de Clima de Segurança no Trabalho Hospitalar (Hospital Work Safety Climate Scale) were used. Analysis was carried out using the IBM SPSS Statistics program. Results: As for the safety climate, the domain with the worst evaluation was “Support for work and safety practices”. There was an association between the safety climate and the variables ​accidents/occupational diseases, use of medications, and missed work resulting from work-related accidents/illnesses. Conclusion: There are weaknesses in the safety culture related to work and safety practices support. Having an accident/illness at work, using medications, and/or missing work is associated with the poorest perceptions of the safety climate.